Early park entrance

[ParrotBill]

I rope dropped early entry for Flight of Passage and Guardians, and standard opening for Runaway Railway the last few days.

FOP: at turnstile 25 min before 7:30 early entry, guests already entering. About 400 people in like all being held in outdoor line down the walk to Africa. Ride opened 10 min late. We got to preshows 45 minutes after arriving at the line so that was 8:15. Back out 8:30.

Guardians: turnstile 8:10, in line also holding outdoors, about 300 people ahead of me. opened doors 8:25. Waited about 20 minutes to preshow. On ride quickly after preshow.

Runaway Railroad: arrived just as turnstiles started so 10 minutes to get in, wait time posted at 20 minutes and was pretty accurate.

 

[CarolynFH]

I know-Pandora is so beautiful in the dark! One advantage of when I usually go in late January is that there's usually at least one day when sunset is about an hour before the park closes. I always go to Animal Kingdom and just walk around Pandora for that last hour. It puzzles me that Disney did all that to make Pandora so beautiful in the dark, then so rarely keeps it open after dark.

I think they did keep it open after dark for some time after Pandora opened. I seem to remember the park being open until 9 or 10 but the FoP standby line being closed 30 minutes or an hour beforehand because it was 2+ hours long. I can’t remember, though, whether AK started closing early before COVID or simply hasn’t stayed open later since reopening after COVID.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

I think they did keep it open after dark for some time after Pandora opened. I seem to remember the park being open until 9 or 10 but the FoP standby line being closed 30 minutes or an hour beforehand because it was 2+ hours long. I can’t remember, though, whether AK started closing early before COVID or simply hasn’t stayed open later since reopening after COVID.

Closing FoP early only lasted a few weeks in 2017 and then they realized that it wasn’t necessary. Line stacking and inflated wait times were enough to control the crowd.

We visited not too long after it opened and the afternoon crowds did hit 3 hours plus. For our first ride, which was shortly before closing time, the posted wait was 130 minutes but we were in the first preshow in just under 20.

They don’t inflate the posted times anywhere near that much anymore.

 

[CarolynFH]

Closing FoP early only lasted a few weeks in 2017 and then they realized that it wasn’t necessary. Line stacking and inflated wait times were enough to control the crowd.

We visited not too long after it opened and the afternoon crowds did hit 3 hours plus. For our first ride, which was shortly before closing time, the posted wait was 130 minutes but we were in the first preshow in just under 20.

They don’t inflate the posted times anywhere near that much anymore.

Do you remember how late AK stayed open at that time? Was it open at night up until Covid? I now realize my memories are influenced by the fact that we visit December through early March, so when it gets dark earlier.

 

[Babe the Blue Ox]

Do you remember how late AK stayed open at that time? Was it open at night up until Covid? I now realize my memories are influenced by the fact that we visit December through early March, so when it gets dark earlier.

I believe that summer the AK closing time alternated between 7 and 8 pm and I would wonder why it was inconsistent.

We liked the earlier close so that we could hop to another park for additional rerides. The goal would have been to get to DHS by 8 pm for a Toy Story tournament or a Tower of Terror marathon.

In this case, we would have hit FoP around 6:40 or so to be out shortly after 7.

 

[JayMass]

Just got back (8/9-8/16) and here's where what we experienced for EE and RD:

EE @MK=They let let everyone regardless of resort status onto Main St. and to the hub (we were there at about 8:10 am, we got flagged at security and that line took like 25 minutes!) If you wanted to go past the hub and into Fantasyland or Tomorrowland they scanned magic bands for resort guests.

EE@DHS=We rope dropped SDD one day and Rise on another day (we were there at about 7:50 each day for 8:30 EE and they allowed people in at about 8:00) They let everyone in regardless of resort status. They scanned magic bands for resort guests at the entrance to Toy Story land and the entrance to Galaxy's Edge. For Galaxy's Edge they had a small line forming for non resort guests before park open for Rise (they did not do this for Toy Story Land).

EE@AK=They let everyone in the entrance but scanned magic bands for resort guests on the beginning of the path to the left right after the tap points. It was a 7:30 EE and we didn't get there until about 7:45.

We did not do EE at Epcot.